The world has seen too much wanton genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Israel must be stopped from continuing to indiscriminately slaughter innocent Palestinians, including tens of thousands of women and children who are no more to blame for Hamas terrorism than Israelis themselves.
After months of brutal, senseless and malevolent attacks on millions of Palestians in their homes, schools and even inside their ruined hospitals, Israeli military officials capped their own ghastly behavior this week.
On Monday, Israeli soldiers murdered seven international aid workers in a convoy that was working with Israeli military officials to safely bring food to starving children and Palestinian residents unable to find refuge from the Israeli onslaught.
“It was a mistake that followed a misidentification – at night during a war in very complex conditions. It shouldn’t have happened,” Israeli Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi told reporters on Tuesday.
It is inexcusable and intolerable.
After months of offering the world little but word salad and criminal justifications for their guarantee of vengeance against their enemy, Hamas, Israeli leaders are indifferent to and deliberately targeting the millions of innocent Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.
More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, and outside experts such as The Lancet and others say they see no reason to doubt the estimate of body counts, about half of which are children and women.
International law is clear, cogent and indisputable: There can be no justification for a nation to collectively punish any nation or community. The law strictly forbids nearly every aspect of how Israel has conducted its war on Gaza since it began Oct. 6.
The righteous outrage of the world over Israel’s sadistic battle against innocent people has nothing to do with the indefensible and appalling assault by Hamas on Israeli innocents last year.
The law is clear, there is no justification for collective punishment, genocide and indiscriminate killing and torture of civilians.
It does not matter that Israeli military forces believe that Hamas hides among innocent civilians, inside Gaza hospitals or lurks in tunnels beneath Gaza schools. International law and humanitarian reason is resolute in prohibiting the Israeli military from targeting civilians as so much inescapable collateral damage in its zeal to exact revenge on Hamas.
It does not matter now that the Israeli military and ruling government is either criminally corrupt or criminally incompetent. It must be stopped.
Some of Israel’s staunchest allies are unified in demanding Israel immediately stop the indiscriminate massacre of innocent civilians they have trapped in the Gaza Strip. The critics include a growing number of Israeli citizens themselves, now protesting en masse.
If the Israeli government and military will not allow for effective food and humanitarian aid, and immediately cease the slaughter of civilians, the US and other allies must stop them.
Israel has no reason to change its course while the world offers tough talk against Israeli war crimes and at the same time sends money, weapons or other forms of support.
The Israeli government will only abide by international law and end its cruel genocide and collective punishment if it faces real and substantive consequences.
The Colorado congressional delegation should lead an effort in both the House and Senate to immediately suspend all sales of weapons to Israel and to join other Israeli allies to demand the Israeli military change its tactics in fighting against Hamas.
The international demand for Israel to cease the genocide in Gaza is apolitical and separate from the endless dispute there.
It’s a matter of law, logic and human decency.
“The righteous outrage of the world over Israel’s sadistic battle against innocent people has nothing to do with the indefensible and appalling assault by Hamas on Israeli innocents last year.”
It has quite a bit to do with it, actually. Don’t kick off an existential conflict with a bunch of paragliding enthusiasts and not expect a response. This isn’t urban America in 2020 where your side gets to cause destruction with impunity and not suffer any kind of pushback.
Gaza’s children didn’t kick off any conflict. They are being punished as revenge. Stop seeing the world as sides and start seeing humanity.
Stop squawking in glittering generalities. This “unity-criticism-unity” tactic is tired and obvious.
Free Palestine
I am appalled that Israel is being allowed to systematically kill those who are being treated as slaves and a 2nd class citizen in their own land. It is really time that the country known as Israel be shut down and the Ashkenazi Jews be returned to whatever European country they come from. They have no right to the land, they never lived there previously as they are Europeans so the right of return does not extend to them. Free Palestine!!
Tell that to the Egyptians, the Philistines, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Sassanids, the Franks, the Mamluks, and the Ottomans. The actual “indigenous” people of the area, the Canaanites, were conquered or bred out millennia ago.
There’s absolutely nothing to actually “free,” as the whole area has been a province or vassal of some stronger power for thousands of years. And it never will be, because even if your dream did come true and every Israeli was wiped off the face of the earth, they’d be a poodle for Iran or Saudi Arabia.
Marxist-inspired ethno-narcissism and ethno-tribalism aside, the “land” belongs to whomever can actually control it.
Leave it to you to raise “Marxism” in the most irrelevant of circumstances.
Look up “monomania”. It applies.
Look up “deflection.” It applies here as well.
And yes, marxists hate it when their dialectic is called out.
Do you even understand what an Ashkenazi Jew is? There are Jews from all over the planet who have settled in Israel.
I hope you’re ready to give your the land you own to the rightful indigenous peoples who lived here before us European’s committed the genocide to take the land for ourselves.
It is outrageous that the Sentinel does not have a better understanding of the cause of the conflict in Gaza and automatically refers to the War as genocide by the Israelis. This editorial does not even recognize that what Israel is trying to accomplish is the elimination of Hamas. Need I remind the editorial board that a cease fire was in place on Oct. 7th when Hamas attacked southern Israel and killed over 1200 Israelis and captured about 240 men, women and children.
Your editorial smacks of antisemitism and has a total lack of understanding of the facts surrounding this conflict. Does Israel make mistakes? The answer is yes and they quickly investigate and acknowledge them. What other country in the world gives civilians advance notice of coming attacks?
You criticize the war effort, but make no mention of the fact that Hamas was pouring thousands of rockets a day into Israel prior to their invasion.
Read the Hamas charter, understand that the cowardly fighters from Hamas hide in hospitals, don’t wear uniforms, use civilians as shields, confiscate food and supplies that Israel is allowing in through several border crossings, etc., etc., etc.
I could go on, but I doubt I will even see what I wrote put into your paper.
To the woman who seems to think only Ashkenazic jews live in Israel, she could not be more wrong. There are Jews from the middle eastern countries, Arabs, Druze, Bedouins, Ethiopians, etc. There has been a Jewish presence in Palestine for many centuries , so Palestine is not occupied land it is disputed land.
I’m tired of people who speak against Israel’s actions being labeled as antisemitic. The definition of being antisemitic is “prejudice against or hatred of Jews”. Disagreeing with how Israel is handling this war absolutely does not mean there is prejudice or hatred against the Jews.
As a Jew happily living in America, I will share that the conflict over Israel/Palestine is extremely complex, and goes much deeper than most are able to or willing to understand. I will also tell you that I am not a Zionist, and I do not personally support what the Israelis have done to the Palestinians since Israel became a nation-state in 1947. I also whole-heartedly disagree with how European Americans displaced natives to create the modern day United States, yet I don’t hear the cries from you all to “Free America!!” and give it all back to those who were here before European colonization and expansion. The fact remains though that through several wars since 1947, Israel has come out on top as the victors, and to the victors go the spoils. As a result of being victorious, Israelis are constantly under the threat of cowardly terrorist actions, so they have to have the highest level of security to protect their people. They have the superior military, hence they have the control. Hamas is choosing to fight an urban guerilla war and shelter themselves amongst the Palestinian population. If the Palestinians want peace, they need to give up and expose Hamas fighters for the Israeli military to apprehend or kill.
That being said, it’s is shameful that both the Jews and the Palestinians cannot learn to live peacefully together. Both sides are at fault for this. Both sides feel the land is theirs and no-one else’s. Both sides see no room for compromise.
My personal opinion is that US should stay out of this mess. It’s not our fight. We have enough issues here at home that need to be dealt with and our hard earned money that we pay the Federal gov’t through taxation should be used to help our own people and not those in another land.